


unrabbited woods

by MiniNephthys



Category: We Know the Devil (Visual Novel)
Genre: Bullying, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, is it angst if it's a setting study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 21:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: Advice on the Fair Folk for young scouts.





	unrabbited woods

**Author's Note:**

> When your friend links you to [Elsewhere University](https://elsewhereuniversity.tumblr.com) and you don't have the time or energy to read all 400 pages, but you do want to write about fae in a modern setting.

The Fair Folk are God’s creatures, but everything is God’s creature, including monsters of the week and bad kids. That doesn’t say anything.

The Fair Folk are not monsters of the week. They are not of the devil. They just are, and they would like to be left alone.

Classes don’t cover more than the basics of the Fair Folk. Occasionally an after-school club teaches more about how to deal with them. They fear iron and salt, so much that even the salt from a ramen packet will do. They care nothing for the cross, the star of David, or the star and crescent.

Whenever you’re not listening to your radio, they can listen to you. Usually you aren’t very interesting, but if you speak of them you must always do so politely. They prefer to be left alone, but their pride is easily stung and their wrath swiftly visited.

Do not walk into a fairy circle. Unknown lights in the distance may be from the devil or from the Kindly Ones: either way they are best not followed.

They do not lie, but that does not make them honest. They do not break deals, but their deals are not safe to take, for the price is always greater than you expect. Do not lie to one of the Fair Folk or break a deal even if it means you lose your life: there are worse things to lose.

Do not look them in the eyes, but never bow.

If they say they pity you, never ask why.

It is true that hundreds of years ago the Fair Folk switched human babies for some of their own, but that practice has long since ended. For some reason, they have no desire to leave their children in modern human society. Children may tease others for having eyes too wide apart or skin too pale, but they are only playing. Kids will be kids.

(Kids sit on the playground with wet cheeks and wonder if a real changeling could make their skin as tough as stone when they were told to. They try and try and try, and nothing changes.)

If you find yourself at their table, eat nothing, for you will be unable to leave.

(Children whose bellies are never full sit next to teenagers whose parents keep them on a choking collar and leash, and both devour the food in front of them.)

If you find yourself in their domain, do not sleep until you are home again.

(Children who cannot close their eyes in their own home for fear rest their head under the shade of a willow tree.)

If you find an outstretched, leafy hand when going between rooms, never take it.

(Children grab onto the only hand that’s been reached out to them and hold tight.)

The number of missing teenagers and children who are believed to have been taken by the Fair Folk has been climbing in recent years. Experts are still uncertain as to why.


End file.
